My technology Tuesday this week will be a tutorial on my most favorite organizational tool, Planbook.com. It is my new lesson plan tool as well as organizational tool. I will show you how to set up an account, how to create your classes, some cool features they have (regardless of age/class/grade), and how I use all of the cool things I find on blogs and TpT in my room. Tune In!

Saturday, March 30, 2013

1. It has been spring break for me this week! Sad, it has only been in the low 40's --but that is actually 10-20 degree warmer than it has been lately. I guess it is the closest thing we have gotten to spring so I will have to take it.....I turned off the heat and opened the windows during the day. (Insert: "You know you are from Wisconsin if.... joke here)

New shelves in the laundryrom and all painted to matchthe walls.

View of the stairs from thelaundry room

2. I used this spring break time to work on my house. My landlords (my parents) are remodeling the house we rent. They put walls in the basement, knocked out a wall by the stairs for "open concept" and put in built in shelving units. I painted, painted, rearranged, organized, and painted some more over break.

3. I have an obsession with purchasing things for my classroom. It gets worse when my colors are on Clearance. Bring on the pink, green, and purple containers!

They fit perfectly on the new shelf I made. This baby is going in the classroom today!

Header from LeeLou Designs

4. I have been reading, and reading, and reading on how to personalize, organize, and market my blog.
I have made a facebook page (and linked the two), created a favicon, created social media buttons, re-did the layout, made a scroll to top button, and learned how to customize each image used on each of those sites! I'm Loving it!

5. Pudge, our dog, has a thing for wet, soggy, gross grass. I don't know why the snow melting and the ooze of mud is appealing to our dog that will jump over any sign of water during the summer, but he has to run through every single puddle and across the grass instead of the sidewalk. Sigh, 3 baths this week what is another?

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

We talk of integrating technology into our daily teaching. Not just using technology to use it, but to integrate it into the learning and to make the technology part of what they are learning. Technology is to keep the students involved as it becomes more and more a part of their digital lives, but also to make learning more fun; to connect to them on a level they enjoy and understand.

Our principal brought up Digital Portfolios, after attending her most recent principals meeting. It would integrate the technology, allow students to express their learning in ways the enjoy and feel confident AND it is a space saver for us teachers.

My last "Technology Tuesday" I showed an app: ScreenChomp, and showed how I would use that to do an assessment with my students. I could use this digital assessment to combine with their online portfolio and have a paperless record of each of my students. I fell this could be done at all grade levels.

Consider it! We are in a new age with students learning in a whole new way, let us learn to teach the way they have learned to learn!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Answers to 2 Truths and lie:1. I have lived in the same house twice 5 years apart. We lived there once, moved out, and moved back a few years later.TRUTH: When my parents separated when I was 4, my mom, brother, and I moved in with my grandparents (and the uncle mentioned below). We moved out when my mom remarried. My grandparents moved out and we bought the house from them. Same house, different floor. :) 2. I am older than my uncle by 5 months, making my mom and grandma be pregnant at the same time-grandma still pregnant when my mom was delivering me.TRUTH: This is true! My grandma was 5 months pregnant when my mom was delivering me. I was born in October and he was born in February. Because we were living together, my uncle and I went to kindergarten together, hand in hand! :)

3. I found my dream job on my first try and and the application process was an easy one for me!LIE: I worked in day care for 2 years HATING the experience (nothing wrong with daycare, but not a good experience with it) and FINALLY found this job as a 3rd year teacher. After hours and hours of applying and rejection letter after rejection letter, I finally found this job and I am so, so happy now.

I would have to say my husband. We have been together for 10 years. We started dating when we were 15, freshmen in high school, and have been together ever since. We have been through all the school dances, applying to college, going to college (2 hours apart), him going to get his pharmacy doctorate in a different state while I was finishing up student teaching, living in a different state from all of our family, and then finally me getting a job I love and making it back to Wisconsin, home sweet home. He proposed to me in the preschool in which I was doing a practicum (on campus) and arranged my roommates to video and photograph it. He wanted to "combine the two loves of my life: him and teaching, into my proposal. He is awesome. We were married in 2011, 8.5 years after we got together.

Place:

It would have to be a tie between my parent's cottage in Northern WI and my husband's grandfather's cottage. They are just peaceful places for us to relax on the beach (for the 3 months of summer we do get around here) and be with family. It can be a nice place to relax and a nice place to party with family.

Thing:

Right now, I would have to say my mantle. I love, love, love decorating for the holidays. I created a mantle in our house when we didn't have one and we just recently got an electric fireplace that just makes it look so much cooler!

Animal:

Our dog (a puggle) Pudge. We adopted Pudge when he was 4 1/2. His owners had health problems and he needed a home. A family friend took him but couldn't keep him because she had to many dogs already. She gave him to her aunt, but she was to old to bend down and hook him up to go out so she gave him back to the family friend again. That family friend finally contacted my mom (who is known to take in animals who need a home--she has 4). My mom contacted me and finally, we got Pudge. I cannot imagine my life with out Pudge. He is our fur baby. He is spoiled rotten and he knows it!

Make sure to visit "Flying into First Grade" and some of the other blogs that are linked up on her blog! Enjoy.

Friday, March 22, 2013

**A Little Note**I have really been working on my blogging and wanting to get out there as a strong blogger. I have been reading how tos to customize my blog so others would want to look at it, let alone read it, as well as other blogger tips. I have been doing my best to follow all the many tips out there. One tip I read was to not use the blog as a list of other materials I got from other blogs. Well, this is one area I am working on. The reason I STARTED blogging in the first place was to help teachers like me who were planning for the very first time in an early childhood room and with particular themes. This would include other blogs to visit and where to get some free stuff that works. That, is the reason for my linking up. I hope that that helps the teachers who need it and doesn't turn off those who don't. All in all, I hope I can be a help to you in your classroom. Best wishes:On that note, our theme this week was Easter/Spring. We talked about what it means to be spring, what we see in the spring, and that even though it is spring, it doesn't feel like it, yet. I can't go to much into Easter, teaching in the public school program. I have a student whose family does not believe in "make believe" such as Santa, elves, tooth fairy, Easter bunny, leprechauns, etc. so I also have to be careful about that. We did bunnies because they come out in the spring to eat the green grass, and eggs because spring is the time for new life and baby birds, chickens, geese, and ducks come from eggs.We continue to write in our journals. We are getting better and the concept of picture on the top, pencil words on the bottom and trying to sound out the initial sound. They are getting better at "reading me" their writing as well.Monday, students filled out information on what they see, hear, play, and like about spring. They drew a picture and helped us spell it by telling us the initial sound we needed to write. The class book can be found at: All Students Can Shine

Students illustrated an egg book. They read the color words by looking at the initial sound and comparing it to what they know and/or the color word posters on the wall. They did really well with this. They are doing great with this concept. I sent the books home and told students to read to their parents over break. PLUS it counts for my parent/child hours we need to record (Wisconsin DPI has the 4K plan 72.5 hours of parent/child interaction). Students also made an egg book with directional words. The put the egg on some grass, over a carrot, in a basket, next to a bunny, and under a cloud. They did great with these books as well! We are emphasizing reading with "the reading finger" as they go along so they are getting the 1:1 correspondance in reading.Both Books can be found at my blogger friends site: Fun in ECSE

Students worked on their shape names, concepts, and shape recognition. They made garden rabbits completely from shapes. They had oval bodies, circle heads, oval ears, oval feet, half circle pants, rectangle straps to their pants, a triangle nose, and circle eyes. They turned out cute! They can be seen hanging in our hallways! Behind the Scenes: Mrs. Gloudemans' Room

1. It is CRAZY that it is spring break today. Students were leaving school Thrusday telling EVERYONE Happy Easter. The bus driver looked at me like I was nuts until I reminded her it was the students last day before Easter! (We are a Mon-Thurs program) Absolutely Crazy!
2. Our after school care teacher was out for a funeral on Wednesday. I volunteered to do the program: 3-5:30. Well it was the biggest Wednesday crowd EVER with 24 students ages 4-11 year olds. We had the Bishop visiting on Thursday (See #3) so we could not be in the normal area (cafeteria) so I had thema ll in my room! It was madness, but organized madness.
3. Bishop Visit. Since I teach the public school kids as a community site for the 4k program in a Catholic school, I could not attend the mass, but our school hosted it and did all the preparations for it outside of my classroom!
4. My husband and I have taken on watching reruns (in chronological order) of 24. We just love the drama, the story, and, of course, Jack Bauer! It has been great for us to bond over a show and enjoy watching something every day! We also discovered our Puggle, Pudge, does NOT like the sound of epinephrine being injected into Jack's heart!
5. NCAA Bracket! As of now (Thursday night) I AM IN FIRST PLACE IN BOTH OF MY BRACKETS! Now, I have no science, I have to research, I just have random guesses and picking based on their names, and jersey colors, but I am winning. According to my husband's research, only 5% of brackets are still completely in tact after the first 8 games. Both of mine are. I am awesome!
Behind the Scenes: Mrs. Gloudemans' Room

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

posted some great stuff on where she found tutorials on how to customize one's blog! I tried some of it out and I am currently testing it out! Find me on facebook now (and with the link on the right hand side)!

Click on the image at right to read her great blog, click on the link under it for her post on how to find the tutorials to personalize! Good Luck!

Just joining? Click on the image above to start organizing your classroom today!

Challenge #9: Organizing Math Materials.

Being a play based classroom, I put out a variety of math (and science) materials in the "discovery area" for students to use and discover with. I have the shelf labeled and I change out some of the activities as the year progresses as well as along with some of the seasons. I have the bins labeled with the materials name and picture for students to clean up.

Even putting the toys away becomes part of the learning as they are working on the concept of sorting and putting things away. There are many days when I walk up to the table and every bin is dumped out. It takes time to clean, but they do sort it out, eventually....

Labeled bins for each center. The bins have images and words to help build literacy as well as put things away.

I keep the seasonal items and extras in labeled bins in the closet. I add the activity ideas to the centers once students master using the center correctly. I also add things like tangram pictures to make, additions sheets (__+___= ____) for them to use in the unifix cubes, etc.

In the fall I had pumpkins and acorns in the center. we have milk jug tops left over from our igloo, bu they use for counting and sorting still, and I plan on putting seeds and similar items in in the spring.

Since I just moved into this room this year, I don't have a bunch to purge yet. I did purge a lot over the summer when I first got the room so I am working with what I have. It is pretty sufficient for the needs right now.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

I love technology. I love using it, teaching with it, and learning about it! I have decided to TRY to put some sort of technology up on Tuesdays that I have found. It may be apps, lesson plan ideas, articles, etc. As I mentioned, I will TRY to do this every Tuesday. This week:

Click on the image to go to the app store.

I, for now, plan on using this app for 2 reasons. 1) To allow students to get practice at home and parents to practice with their child. A sample of this will be our letter of the week. Here is the video for this letter of the week (Xx).

2) To help me assess the students. I can take a photo of the assessment sheet, record the students voices working through the assessment. This way, I can go back to the results at a later time and possibly see the problem. Maybe I could teach them to do it so they think they are doing a game but are being assessed....this is still in the works but here is my pretending to sample.

To embed the video on my blog (and you would have to do if you were going to embed) is not to tough, but still somewhat of a pain. (Original Source)

1. Save screenchomp as the name of the file (student, letter, etc)

2. share by email with yourself

3. open ON A COMPUTER

4. click on the link on a computer

5. scroll down to the bottom.

6. download MP4 file

7. put the video in with the movie button and choose the file name you saved it as.

Monday, March 18, 2013

1. I have lived in the same house twice 5 years apart. We lived there once, moved out, and moved back a few years later.When my parents separated when I was 4, my mom, brother, and I moved in with my grandparents (and the uncle mentioned below). We moved out when my mom remarried. My grandparents moved out and we bought the house from them. Same house, different floor. :)
2. I am older than my uncle by 5 months, making my mom and grandma be pregnant at the same time-grandma still pregnant when my mom was delivering me.This is true! My uncle and I went to kindergarten together, hand in hand! I was born in October and he was born in February. :)
3. I found my dream job on my first try and and the application process was an easy one for me!The lie is number 3! I worked in day care for 2 years HATING the experience (nothing wrong with daycare, but not a good experience with it) and FINALLY found this job as a 3rd year teacher.
Make sure to visit "Flying into First Grade" and some of the other blogs that are linked up on her blog! Enjoy.

Please follow my blog!KEEP YOUR GUESSES COMING! THE ANSWER WILL BE UP ON FRIDAY!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

We started off the week with St. Patricks day measuring. Students saw how many cubes fit in between the dots on St. Patrick's Day themed materials. I downloaded the document as a Google Doc, but it does not have a source page and I am having trouble tracking it down. Until I find the original post, I cannot post the document. In small group, students took turns rolling the dice and using the bingo dotter on the correct number. Students enjoyed the bingo dotters! I found the Kate blog: Fun in ECSE. I printed the roll and cover 2 to a page to give them more opportunities to stamp numbers. They were still a good size.

We introduced the CD player in the listening center. Students learned how to put the cd in correctly, pick which number they want, push play, and follow along in the books with their reading finger. The book I introduced this with was There was an old Lady who swallowed a Clover. Students really love the There was an Old Lady books!

Students had the chance to rip up various paper and make rainbow. The rainbow was labeled with the color word. Students practiced early literacy skills of sounding out the first letter and thinking of what color makes that sound first. They also used the Color words on the wall to reference. Which one looks like the one on their paper and then what color is that poster. These are great problem solving skills and literacy skills to have! The rainbows look great and will be going on our ceiling soon!Some students had the opportunity to do lucky charms tasting (5 senses), created by 2teachingmommies.com (printable pack) Not all students got to this area as we are having a few troubles with our listening ears and being quiet on carpet/clean up time so that we can get to play time and have enough time to do all the fun play time. I hope to keep helping them work on these important skills of stopping and listening to the teacher when needed so they can be successful in kindergarten.

We also had the chance to have a Leprechan visit our room. I did not intend to make this an activity, but after reading, The Night before St. Patrick's Day, students got very excited to build traps and write letters to the leprechaun Since this gave them an imaginative direction to the block center and a reason to write, I welcomed the idea into the classroom.

All Day on Monday and Tuesday, students spent time writing letters and building traps!

Friends making a leprechaun trap!

The Leprechaun tracks up to the empty letter drop box! and a note!

On Wednesday, the leprechaun left us a note:

Thank yee for very much for the notes and letters, but I won't tell yee where me treasure is, not yet!

But I want to give you a clue to magic you may have never seen....What colors do you mix to make me favorite color green?

Upon reading the note, I gave the students the supplies they needed to go and discover what colors to mix to make green! We got it! Blue + Yellow = Green! We even have a song! Blue and yellow make green, Blue and yellow make green, Mix them together, Blue and yellow make green! (melody to Farmer in the Dell).On Wednesday, students spent the day writing notes to the leprechaun, answering his question about colors, and other various things. They continued to build traps. On Thursday we got a new note! It sent students on a magic treasure hunt with clues (under the teacher chair, under one of the traps, under the discovery table and finally to the treasure: hiding on the top of each of their cubbies! Students were delighted to get the gold!

Go to where your teacher sits to teach, the first clue is in your reach.

You found the first clue, that is true.Next, you have clue number two.In the center you created traps, when youfind your clue you will get lots of claps!

This led the students to my teaching chair. Hanging on my chair was another note:

This led them to the block center, in one of the traps they had created the day before. Inside was another note:

You found clue number three, I didn'tthink you would catch me!At school, the best part is all the stuffyou discover. Under this table youcan take cover!

This led them to the Discovery center table, where a note was taped at the bottom of the table.There they found a note that read:

Now all of you QUICK! go back to yourseat, I think you all have earned a treat.Sit in your seats ready, with zero sound.Look at the top of your cubbies and yourtreasure can be found!

Students were told they could not touch the gold because it had magic on it and if they touched the leprechaun would take it back. This helped them from going over to their cubbies all day. They were so excited to take the gold home, they told any person that walked by--even parents of other students they didn't know!

All in all, the kids had a fun this week. I am noticing the spring fever and the need for spring break to come soon! We had a slight warm up and some rain the last few days so we were all excited....until we woke up to THIS Saturday morning, 2-3 inches of SNOW! Ugh, I know we are from Wisconsin, but this day last year was 78*! Spring, come soon--for all of our sake!!

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About Me

I am recently married with a hilarious husband, a puggle named Pudge who not only lives up to his name, but is constantly a source of entertainment, a 4k teacher with 30 children that say the darnedest things, and a family that never stops making me laugh. Read along for a glimpse into the funny life I live.